Whitbread signs new loan agreement

Hotel and coffee shop operator Whitbread has signed a new syndicated bank five year facility of £650m, replacing its existing bank loan facilities of £930m.

The move will allow the firm to follow its policy of diversifying its sources of debt and extending its maturity profile.

In the last two years total funding of the equivalent of £250m has been made available from private placement notes with maturities from 2017-2021, to which has been added this new five year £650m.

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The effective blended interest rate on the group's total borrowings for the balance of this financial year will be just over 6%, falling to around 5.5% from February 2012 on the maturity of a number of interest rate swaps.

Finance director of the group, Christopher Rogers, said: "We are pleased to have secured the support of our core relationship banks for a loan at an attractive rate, which together with our private placement notes, meet the medium term funding needs of the group to support our growth programme."

The share price fell 0.49% to 1,636p by 08:15.

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